Attention to the Unseen

Andrew Prokop writes: A bitter public feud split the MAGA movement over the holidays, as supporters of high-skilled legal immigration like Elon Musk argued vociferously (and sometimes profanely) with the right’s immigration critics over the topic of H-1B visas. Musk, like many tech executives, strongly supports that program, which lets companies bring skilled foreign workers to the US for specific jobs — indeed, Musk said he once had such a visa himself. Critics on the right have long argued that it suppresses wages…

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Peter Slevin writes: The mood among Democrats on a December morning in the Wisconsin state capitol was celebratory. Ten Assembly candidates—among them a school administrator, a tavern owner, an accountant, and a county politician—had flipped Republican seats after the state Supreme Court threw out a heavily gerrymandered map. “I am super excited. Who else is super excited?” Representative Lisa Subeck, the caucus chair, said. Some of the newly elected spoke about what they hope to deliver: affordable housing, broadband, clean…

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The New York Times reports: Like much of the Mexican business world, Daniel Córdova finds himself grappling with an enormous variable looming across the American border: the imminent return of Donald J. Trump to the White House. Mr. Córdova oversees a factory outside the city of Monterrey that makes heating and air-conditioning units for Trane, an American company. The last time Mr. Trump was president, he unleashed a trade war against China that proved beneficial to Mexican industry. Companies that…

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HuffPost reports: President-elect Donald Trump weighed in Saturday on the immigration issue that has been roiling some of his highest-profile supporters online, telling The New York Post that he has “always been in favor” of H-1B visas. It is not exactly true: Trump has waffled on his support for the H-1B program over the years, going so far as to suspend it late in his first term while his administration planned harsh new restrictions for workers seeking the visas. Denial…

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The New York Times reports: Western officials have long been concerned about Moscow’s so-called shadow fleet, an assemblage of aged tankers created to covertly carry Russian crude oil around the world. Since Russia invaded Ukraine, the worry primarily concerned the use of such off-the-books ships to circumvent Western sanctions and generate revenue to fuel the Kremlin’s war machine. But Russia’s shadow fleet may now present a more pressing danger to the West. This week, Finnish commandos boarded an oil tanker…

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